Numerical experience with solving MPECs as NLPs

This paper describes numerical experience with solving MPECs as NLPs on a large collection of test problems. The key idea is to use off-the-shelf NLP solvers to tackle large instances of MPECs. It is shown that SQP methods are very well suited to solving MPECs and at present outperform Interior Point solvers both in terms … Read more

Implementation of Interior Point Methods for Mixed Semidefinite and Second Order Cone Optimization Problems

There is a large number of implementational choices to be made for the primal-dual interior point method in the context of mixed semidefinite and second order cone optimization. This paper presents such implementational issues in a unified framework, and compares the choices made by different research groups. This is also the first paper to provide … Read more

Computation of Minimum Volume Covering Ellipsoids

We present a practical algorithm for computing the minimum volume n-dimensional ellipsoid that must contain m given points a_1, …, a_m \in R^n. This convex constrained problem arises in a variety of applied computational settings, particularly in data mining and robust statistics. Its structure makes it particularly amenable to solution by interior-point methods, and it … Read more

Interior-Point Methods for Nonconvex Nonlinear Programming: Complementarity Constraints

In this paper, we present the formulation and solution of optimization problems with complementarity constraints using an interior-point method for nonconvex nonlinear programming. We identify possible difficulties that could arise, such as unbounded faces of dual variables, linear dependence of constraint gradients and initialization issues. We suggest remedies. We include encouraging numerical results on the … Read more

Limiting behavior of the central path in semidefinite optimization

It was recently shown that, unlike in linear optimization, the central path in semidefinite optimization (SDO) does not converge to the analytic center of the optimal set in general. In this paper we analyze the limiting behavior of the central path to explain this unexpected phenomenon. This is done by deriving a new necessary and … Read more

Geometry of homogeneous convex cones, duality mapping, and optimal self-concordant barriers

We study homogeneous convex cones. We first characterize the extreme rays of such cones in the context of their primal construction (due to Vinberg) and also in the context of their dual construction (due to Rothaus). Then, using these results, we prove that every homogeneous cone is facially exposed. We provide an alternative proof of … Read more

Condition and complexity measures for infeasibility certificates of systems of linear inequalities and their sensitivity analysis

We begin with a study of the infeasibility measures for linear programming problems. For this purpose, we consider feasibility problems in Karmarkar’s standard form. Our main focus is on the complexity measures which can be used to bound the amount of computational effort required to solve systems of linear inequalities and related problems in certain … Read more

The Penalty Interior Point Method fails to converge for Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium Constraints

This paper presents a small example for which the Penalty Interior Point Method converges to a non-stationary point. The reasons for this adverse behaviour are discussed. Citation Numerical Analysis Report NA/208, Department of Mathematics, University of Dundee, February 2002. Article Download View The Penalty Interior Point Method fails to converge for Mathematical Programs with Equilibrium … Read more

Relating Homogeneous Cones and Positive Definite Cones via hBcalgebras

$T$-algebras are non-associative algebras defined by Vinberg in the early 1960’s for the purpose of studying homogeneous cones. Vinberg defined a cone $K(\mathcal A)$ for each $T$-algebra $\mathcal A$ and proved that every homogeneous cone is isomorphic to one such $K(\mathcal A)$. We relate each $T$-algebra $\mathcal A$ with a space of linear operators in … Read more

A primal-dual symmetric relaxation for homogeneous conic systems

We address the feasibility of the pair of alternative conic systems of constraints Ax = 0, x \in C, and -A^T y \in C^*, defined by an m by n matrix A and a cone C in the n-dimensional Euclidean space. We reformulate this pair of conic systems as a primal-dual pair of conic programs. … Read more